Here is my reply from there:


We've optimized our DID ordering process recently.

We did remove some rural areas in which we've determined it's just not cost effective to do business in.

Your issue is more around the optimization though...

We work with many CLECs and carrier partners and often each ratecenter is priced differently with each of them. We get most DIDs via APIs.

In the past, our order forms just showed ALL DIDs from multiple carrier partners and mixed them together. In some cases, people would end up with DIDs from carrier partners that cost 5x more than others in their area. All carrier partners that we work with have great quality so that's not an issue. There's no functional difference besides price.

Now the order form looks at every ratecenter to determine the most cost effective carrier for that ratecenter. It shows the inventory from the most cost effective carrier choice first and will only advance to the next carrier if first first choice is sold out.

This may sound like it doesn't make a big difference, but just by going through and "optimizing" our existing DIDs recently by doing internal ports to move them to the most cost effective carrier, we're now saving around $14,000 per month. It's little details like this that determine profitability or failure in this industry and why so many people fail.

For those of you looking for wider selection though, there is some good news. We will soon to integrating another CLEC into the ordering process via API. This is a CLEC that we've worked with for years, but have recently signed a huge deal for origination with. Once integrated in the API, this CLEC will be our primary for number ordering in the 2600 top ratecenters in the country. They have over 1000 sequential numbers in most ratecenters and only a handful of companies using their API (I believe 4), so there are some pretty good numbers to choose from.